Ruminations from a jaded old guy

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Why i fled the Netherlands exemplified

A guy had some old empty envelopes in his car. He passed a public wastebasket on the way, stopped and threw them in. To his astonishment some time later he received a fine to the amount of 140 euro for: throwing the wrong garbage in a public wastebasket.

What happened was a zealous functionary found the envelopes and with his address on it fined him. Obviously the guy wasn’t happy and went to court in the conviction this was so utterly absurd it couldn’t be true. To his further astonishment and outrage the judge upheld the fine but if he promised to never do it again halved it.

These kinds of absurdities are standard in the nation of rules and regulations. There are so many that it would literally much easier and efficient to just make a law which stipulated things you are actually allowed to do without consequences. It would be a few pages only.